Blog Café

Recently, a few of my blogger friends here in Dominica got together for a little blog café.  It was a fun morning: we enjoyed coffee, made a breakfast treat, talked blogs, did a little blogging, and just hung out.  

All of these friends are also excellent cooks and bakers in the kitchen, so it was especially fun when Chris taught us how to make mulasadas, a favorite donut-y breakfast treat that he and his family enjoyed when he was growing up in Hawaii.  Mulasadas, fresh fruit and delcious coffee? Yes, please!

Rachael has worked in kitchens and was a pastry chef for a while, so she and Chris talked technique and figured out how to fry up the mulasadas to perfection.  Crystal, also a wizard in the kitchen, is an awesome photographer, so she documented our morning with some gorgeous pics, in addition to lending a hand making the yummy treats.  Katie shared her knowledge about blogging and design with the group.  And I did the dishes, because I'm so domestic.  It was a great morning, spent with creative and interesting friends.  Thanks so much, Chris, for having us!

If you are interested in the delicious treats that are malasadas, check out the malasada recipe on Chris's blog.  Crystal also posted a great step-by-step photo tutorial for the Malasadas on her blog!    

Fonts used:
AW Conquerer {Inline}
Sophia
Cool Stuff

Arrow Brushes from Creature Comforts

Photo by Crystal Durrant

Jazz Fest

Yay, the weekend is here! Today I am off for a fun adventure, canyoning, with Charlie and some of our island friends.  We're pretty excited!  The weekends have been fun lately, and last weekend was no exception.

Before I tell you all about last weekend, I'd like to thank Whitney for featuring me on her blog yesterday.  Whitney is so sweet and I love her gorgeous blog!

Last Sunday, Charlie and I spent the afternoon with friends at Dominica's Jazz Fest.  Held outdoors at Cabrits National Park, we enjoyed live jazz music from a handful of bands in addition to some delicious local food and drinks.

* In Dominica, never leave home without bug spray or those mosquitoes will eat you up!

It was such a fun afternoon, and reminded us all of summer back in the States, enjoying an outdoor concert and a cold beer with friends.

Also, Charlie didn't really drink Magnum Tonic Wine, (doesn't that sound scary?!!), although he did trick me for a few minutes and tell me that that's what he was enjoying.  Those were just the cups that were used for all of the drinks.

Here is what we actually did eat and drink, in addition to a peek at the local menu:

The fish was absolutely delicious and the beer was nice and cold.  A Ginger Shandy is always a treat (it's like a barely alcoholic ginger ale), it's so refreshing!  It was a perfect afternoon.

Cheers to jazz and Sunday fun days!

Fonts used:
Forty Second Street
Pea Roxy Girl 

Arrow Brushes from Creature Comforts

Images by Clare Wilkinson for C Squared W

I love Rome.

The first portion of my recent trip to Italy with my mom was spent in glorious Rome.  As you may know, my little sister, Margaret, spent the semester studying abroad in Rome.  She's currently living with a host family in a cute area of Rome called Trastevere, so when my mom began looking for a place for us to stay during our visit, we wanted something that would be close to Marge.  

We ended up booking the cutest apartment from Air B&B that happened to be just a block away { a two minute walk} from Margaret's apartment.  It was perfect!

The apartment was gorgeous with tall ceilings, beautiful architectural details, and huge windows.

We enjoyed good wine, cheese, and coffee in the apartment when we weren't busy exploring all of Rome with Margaret who was a perfect tour guide.

Just a few minutes from our apartment was a wonderful market that was stocked with fresh fruits and vegetables every morning.  The tomatoes were to die for, as were the strawberries and oranges which we enjoyed for breakfast on several occasions.  

We rented a car and drove around in it all week.  Italians are wild drivers, so that was a pretty crazy experience!  Just kidding, I just liked this picture.  We did not drive or rent a car.  Every day we did a ton of walking, with a few rides on buses, trams, and trains, and the occasional taxi ride. 

Our days were comprised mainly of walking...

cafés and cappuccinos...

visits to museums and sightseeing...

. . . and obviously, eating fantastic Italian food, like this spinach and cheese ravioli with truffle oil.

Each day in Rome held new adventures, photo ops, and culinary delights.  One of my favorite parts of traveling is discovering unknown treasures: happening upon a beautiful church or fabulous restaurant, just by chance, while walking through a city.  This happened to us often during this trip, and resulted in us seeing some gorgeous churches, visiting interesting museums, and eating delightful pastries.  

What I love about Rome is the incredible history and rich culture.  We would set out each day with a plan and list of what we wanted to see and do, and would excitedly visit those sites, while always adding a few unexpected destinations to our list, like a cool museum we passed by, or historical gems discovered on a walking tour.  Rome is amazing! 

What's your thing about visiting a new city?

***Thanks Margaret for sharing some of your wonderful photos with me! 

Market Saturdays

One of my favorite things here in Dominica is the market on Saturday mornings.  It begins around 5 AM (that's not the part I like) and lasts throughout the morning.  On the days that I am able to drag myself out of bed, maybe around 6 or 7 AM (waking and functioning at 5 AM is not something of which I'm capable!), I love enjoying a quiet morning and heading down to the market.  If you know me, then you probably know that I am not a morning person, so this is a huge feat, and you're probably thinking, "this market must be pretty special," and you're right, it absolutely is!

Early on Saturday mornings is one of the most peaceful times I have experienced here in Dominica.  The sun is coming up and the birds are chirping excitedly, but otherwise the town is quiet.  The air is still cool and crisp.  This past Saturday, I arose early and headed out to the market.  I decided to walk the thirty minute walk (proudly passing up the handful of cars and buses who offered me rides along the way - I love trying to be tough!) to get in a little exercise and enjoy the quiet.

On the way to the market, I passed many birds, cows, goats and chickens.  At one point I passed a student walking her strangely scruffy-looking dog.  I couldn't resist petting the crazy little creature, so while chatting and admiring her fuzzball, I'm pretty sure that I drooled on her dog; it was early, my mouth was agape, and a stream of drool cascaded from my mouth onto her crazy critter's fuzzy head. What is happening, was the only thing I could muster up, and I got the heck out of dodge.  It was 6 AM, I blame it entirely on my inability to function before 9 AM.

Arose at 6 AM.  Check.

Put on shoes, bra, and underpants (the essentials, in addition to regular clothes, don't worry, I'm not that crazy).  Check.

Drooled on crazy dog. Check.

Ran for my life because I drooled on crazy dog.  Check.

So, I did the skedaddle and kept trucking towards the market.  Along the way I passed our favorite restaurant, an awesome little hole-in-the-wall with great seafood and lots of character...

I also took in the spectacular view along the way as I continued my walk...

Incredible, huh?

When I arrived at the market, it was everything I'd remembered it to be and more! (Sadly, it had been awhile since I'd last gotten up at 6 AM to visit the market).

I purchased fruits and veggies galore from this kind lady.  Look at her gorgeous carrots and green onions (which they call chives here and pronounce sives)!

Then there were the awesome heads of fresh lettuce for 1 EC (37 cents!) from these guys, who spent their morning yelling, "Lovely lettuce!  Right here! Would the lovely lady like some lovely lettuce?"  Yes, yes, I would... 

There was produce from the back of a grandpa's truck.  He was fully stocked with lettuce, papaya, watermelon, dasheen, ginger, string beans, tomatoes, plantains, all grown on his own farm.  There was even a bottle of rum...

There was more produce, coconuts, and best of all, fresh sugar cane, nature's candy: crunchy, juicy, and sweet as can be!

I couldn't pass up a jelly coconut, filled with fresh coconut water, hacked open by Eddie especially for me! 

Can we talk about how awesome his car filled with coconuts is?!? Seriously, I love it! 

I loaded my bags, which were so heavy that I got a ride home.  Check out my loot:

Needless to say, we ate grapefruits for breakfast all week long and we're still enjoying the beautiful flowers!  I forgot to put my lovely lettuce in the photo, but it really was lovely. 

And that, friends, is why I love the market.  Minus drooling on dogs, it makes for a perfect start to my Saturday, every time!

What's your favorite weekend ritual?

My Favorite Meals

Basically every day I wake up and immediately start thinking about what to make for dinner that day and throughout the week.  I check the fridge and pantry to see what ingredients are available since the grocery store situation can be tricky around here.  {You can read more about that here and here.}

Then, without fail, I head over to my Pinterest boards where I spend the next hour drooling over everything I've pinned.  Then, I narrow down the dinner options to a handful of recipes, based on what  I can scavenge  track down or substitute to make the magic happen.  

Here are some current favorite meals:

Chicken and Avocado Soup {Skinny Taste}

Really, the best soup I have ever had.  Avocado in soup is genius!

Mexican Lasagna {Mel's Kitchen Cafe}

I love this! I usually make 1 and make an extra to freeze. Yes!

Chicken and Dumplings {Bon Appetit}

*I couldn't find ricotta to make my own gnocchi, so I just used a package of regular potato gnocchi... it was so good!

Easy White Bean Stew {C Squared W}

My go-to.  In the summer, I make it with fresh greens like swiss chard, and in the winter (and in Dominica) I used frozen spinach.  Healthy and tasty!

Lemon Chicken {Annie's Eats}

I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts and this turned out great!  The chicken was zesty and tender.

Orzo with Roasted Vegetables {Food Network / Barefoot Contessa}

I served this with the lemon chicken, it was awesome, I will be making this often!

Crispy Gnocchi Pesto with Tomatoes and Goat Cheese {1 Cup Awesome}

Something different and delicious! The crispy gnocchi was really good.  Don't make this without goat cheese, it made the dish!

Baked Dijon Chicken {Just Cook Already}

Loved it! Charlie's new fave.  Easy and perfectly tender/seasoned chicken.  I don't even like honey mustard and I loved this {I think it's the curry powder and red pepper flakes that make it so good!}

Chicken and Scallion Dumplings {C Squared W}

I could eat these every day!

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Fajitas {Betty Crocker}

*Also added 1 cup of chicken broth and a can of black beans.  We loved these!

Dark Chocolate Chip Comfort Cookies {Bakerella}

Sort of like a brownie, but in cookie form.  I used regular chocolate chips instead of dark chocolate.  Awesome! {I had to include one dessert!}

I'd love to hear what you think if you decide to try any of these!  What's your favorite go-to dinner dish?

What's Cooking

Remember when we got a grocery store here in Picard last April?  It was AMAZING!  I have to remind myself of this when I go to buy some groceries for dinner and well... I leave with a bag of crackers instead, because I can't find what I have a hankering for or what I need for something I was hoping to make.

Case in point:

I went to the grocery store today and the produce section looked like this:

• strange root vegetables covered in bark that look way too difficult to deal with (I know the names of them, but I'm just being dramatic.)


• brown-spotted bananas


• basket of onions with fruit flies flying around in it


• soft potatoes


• tons of cucumbers (I bought 3)


• 3 bags of local lettuce past its prime


• 3 Vidalia onions (weird)


• 1 package of broccoli that was yellow/brown


• 15EC ($5) bags of month-old carrots

When IGA has just gotten a shipment in, it can be like Christmas it's so wonderful in there, but when it's bare in there, oh man, is it bare!  Anyways - you get the drift - the grocery store situation is unpredictable!

This results in Caribbean Hoarding Syndrome.  When the grocery store was fully stocked over Christmas, I bought 3 cans of enchilada sauce because, well, who knows when they'll have it again?

Last week, like the Caribbean Hoarder that I am, I bought 2 packages of this bacon.  It made me laugh:

Hotel Brand. Sliced in the Tradition of Fine Hotels.

What. are. you. talking. about?  So funny.

{via}

If you're a good baker, ignore this next sentence, you'll be absolutely horrified, but if you're lazy, can't bake, and like sweets, read on: yesterday morning, I made this deliciousness for Charlie and I for breakfast and it was the bomb.  Coffee cake, in a mug, that takes less than 5 minutes to throw together.  A mini little coffee cake that you microwave in a mug.  Oh yes.  My kind of baking!

{via} 

Today I scavenged and found some chicken and a leek, so I'm planning on making this Chicken and Dumplings recipe from Bon Appetit (minus the homemade gnocchi ricotta - I'm just using some packaged gnocchi)... I'll let you know the verdict!

***Verdict: the chicken and dumplings was amazing.  Make it, you will be so happy!

Belated Birthday Surprise!

Charlie celebrated his 29th birthday back in January while I was visiting my family in the states.  I was sad to miss Charlie's birthday, but promised I'd make it up to him with a cake and belated birthday celebration.  What he didn't know was that he'd have a little birthday surprise.

Let me just say that planning a birthday surprise (even a small one with a handful of friends) for a super-focused, stressed out med school student is no easy task.

I went over to a friend's house to make fun cupcakes - yellow cake batter topped and filled with homemade chocolate frosting, decorated with chocolate shavings and Rastafarian colored M&M's.  Plus the cupcake wrappers went with Charlie's island nickname, Jungle Charlie, so perfect!  Making the treats was the easy part.

The tricky party was getting Charlie to go to his own surprise party.  I kept it small, since I knew a test was coming up and Charlie wouldn't be able to hang out for too long, so I just invited a handful of close friends.  Normally, Charlie will study at school in the afternoons, come home for dinner around seven, and then study at home for the rest of the evening.  The plan was to have dinner at home and then go get some ice cream after dinner, where Charlie would discover his friends and cupcakes waiting for him.

Well, the evening of the party, Charlie come home for dinner, but was ready to head back to school immediately after, which left me stalling for forty-five minutes.  This meant reading aloud all the recent emails I could find from my mom and sisters; watching Caribbean music videos on You Tube; explaining the Sh*t Girls Say video phenomenon; listening to songs on iTunes; showing him things I liked on Pinterest; and honestly, I cannot even remember what else, but there was a lot of stalling.

Finally, Charlie was ready to go, standing outside on the porch with his backpack on, ready to head to the library  fifteen minutes before he was supposed to arrive at his party, which meant me pretending to look for shoes I couldn't find and standing in the bathroom for at least five minutes with the water running, calling friends and asking them to call Charlie and stall him.  When his friend's called to stall him, Charlie's phone rang and he pressed "ignore" and put his phone back in his pocket... talk about focus!

Finally, when I couldn't stall him any longer, we walked towards campus together, and at that point I was heading to the ice cream shop to eat ice cream alone since Charlie was adamant on getting back to the library.  Luckily, we walked by at the perfect time, just as our friends were walking up the street carrying the cupcakes.  Needless to say Charlie was very, very surprised, especially since his birthday was a few weeks past.  Everyone yelled surprise, and we had a good laugh about how difficult it was to get Charlie to his own surprise party.  We all hung out for thirty minutes or so and enjoyed the cupcakes, and then Charlie headed off to the library.

It was a good birthday, hilarious, and short but sweet!   Happy belated birthday Charlie!

Magical Things

In case you were wondering what the weather was like here on Christmas!

Wild beauty captured on an impromptu hike.

An amazing rope swing on the beach.

A free pineapple from the pineapple and ginger farmer who sells to Dee's.  He happens to love me.  Hence, my second free pineapple, such a fun treat!

Beautiful, beautiful red rocks.  Or is it Mars?  Not sure!

Ethan and his dog showed us the way to the red rocks!

On a hike, we found a citrus grove with hundreds of ripe grapefruits that had just fallen from the tree.  We came home with a backpack full of them! Time to make some juice!

A new discovery in Calibishie: Coral Reef Restaurant.  Yummy, local food with an amazing view!

From our yard.

A poinsettia tree down the street.

The shabby PBH dock.

Giant banana leaves in our yard.

The mermaid at Krazy Koconuts.  There are really no words...

Happy New Year from Dominica!  Hope your 2012 is filled with magic!

Mustache Monday

So, I was just looking through some photos, and I realized that I am weird.  Like, really weird.  Case in point: I have a strange habit of taking unflattering photos of myself yelling at exceptionally large fruits...

{For the record, I think my intention is to look shocked at how large the fruits are, but the photos never turn out that way.  And that, friends, is how you end up with way too many photos of yourself verbally abusing large fruits.}

Being the genius that he is, Charlie suggesting adding speech bubbles to these gems.  AMAZING.  And being the nut that I am, I decided to bless these honkin' fruits with some mustaches.  Also AMAZING.

Boom.